


and then

by Nyodrite



Series: Ideas [13]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Self-Indulgent, but then isn't everything I post
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 13:46:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18053636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyodrite/pseuds/Nyodrite
Summary: Naruto flushed. The only thing worse then having an unknown audience for when you’re singing and making a fool of yourself is if you had one when you weredancingand making a fool of yourself. “Not, um, notoftenbut I sing sometimes. And I, uh, made that song up…?”Naruto could almosthearthe blaring sirens and see a flashing red sign reading ‘COPYRIGHT!’ in big, bold letters.





	and then

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this a bit ago. it doesn't fit but i liked it enough that i didn't want to just _delete_ it even if i wanted to clear the space it was taking. so. solution - posting it.

Hiruzen only lets loose the sigh that he had been holding the entire time his old friend had been in his office when the door falls shut behind Danzo. He wishes...- well, he wishes for a lot of impossible things; for his wife’s life, for Kumo and Iwa to stop sniffing at their borders, for his chosen successor to be _alive_ to deal with everything instead of him.…for him to not have to regard old friends with suspicion.

But that’s neither here nor there.

“Hokage-sama.” The ANBU that had been waiting for Danzo’s departure says, calling his attention to where she stands straight-backed before his desk.

Hiruzen smiles, relaxing slightly - this, at least, he doesn’t have an issue dealing with. “Nezumi, report.”

“Uzumaki-kun is in good health; he eats the recommended amount for his age, though he still refuses to eat vegetables, and the required amount of sleep for a toddler.” Nezumi starts the report as she always does. “His clothing, while not _good_ quality, is in decent condition and no worse off then that of the other orphans. Uzumaki-kun continues his repetition of basic Hiragana characters along with expanding his verbal vocabulary. He received minor injuries due to running into a tree while chasing a squirrel….again.”

“That’s the fifth one, isn’t it?” Hiruzen shakes his head, why that boy seems to have developed some kind of obsession with squirrels he can’t understand. “Any friends yet?”

“Uzumaki-kun has made no friends at this time.” Nezumi answers and he sighs, fingers flicking to dismiss her. Unlike each time she previously came to give him a monthly status report on Naruto, Nezumi remains though when she speaks it’s with some hesitation that her earlier speech lacked. “Hokage-sama….if I may, there are some things that were not requested in my report that I believe that you should be aware of.”

_That_ catches his interest as much as her remaining behind does. Nara Yoshiko, behind an ANBU mask or in her chunin uniform, never liked dragging out reports or debriefings after all.

He nodded, “You may speak.”

“Uzumaki-kun is not being abused,” Nezumi starts and Hiruzen can feel anger cooling in his gut because he can hear the ‘ _but’_ she has yet to say. “But he is….isolated. He was relocated into the attic on his own, the caretakers seem to have collectively decided to ignore him entirely now that he is four.”

“...I see.” Hiruzen says, standing slowly. “Please tell my secretary that I’ve decided it’s time for me to visit the orphanage.”

Nezumi bows deeply in acknowledgement, accepting the dismissal this time.

* * *

 

The day that Naruto first met - kind of, meeting as a newborn doesn't count exactly because it's not like they could talk to each other - the Sandaime Hokage was an unremarkable one. He got up early as usual to use the bathroom before the rush of kids came when the others in the orphanage woke up, finished eating the breakfast offered by the time the first of the school-aged kids trailed in and then went outside to entertain himself for the rest of the day.

Of course 'entertain himself' consisted of a variety of activities that mostly changed each day, the two things that stayed the same was practicing his hiragana and running laps around the clearing that the orphanage was built. Aside from those two things, his days had a great variety on what he would do - some activities depended on things outside of his influence, such as squirrel hunting needed an actual squirrel or puddle jumping needed rain, and so happened less often. Far more common activities consisted of going into the forest around the orphanage to explore a little, never far enough to get lost but far enough to see new things, or obsessively going over the storylines of various things - anime, books, movies and such - that he enjoyed previously so he wouldn't forget.

_Naruto_ , of course, was his priority in terms of remembering.

When the Sandaime came to visit, it was some time after Naruto had done his laps - he was up to a grand total of five now - but before he started his daily hiragana practice. In the time between these two mandatory activities, he decided to entertain himself by trying to translate a song over from English so he could sing it. By the time the Hokage had wandered over to talk to him, he had felt like he had done a decent enough job for the beginning of Matchbox 20’s _How Far We’ve Come_.

Decent enough to try singing it aloud, in fact.

“ _Ohayō, ohayō, ohayō._ ” Naruto started out softly, a whisper under his breath that grew steadily until he was singing only barely at regular volume. “ _I'm awake at the beginning of the end of the world_

_Yet it still feels like just another morning_ _  
_ _And I ask, “What will happen if my life goes away?”_

_The carts are leaving for a world so far away_ _  
_ _And I saw the passengers calling out, "Sayōnara."_ _  
_ _Can you even still call me special, after all this time?_

_I think the world is burning to the ground_ _  
_ _But I guess we have to just wait and see_ _  
_ _Do you know how far we've been?_ _  
_ _Do you know how far we've been?_

_I think that it is approaching the end_ _  
_ _Well, I think we are going to pretend_ _  
_ _Do you know how far we've been?_

_Do you know how far we've been…..?_ ” Naruto trailed off into silence at the end of this new, non-car mentioning, version of a song he’d like so much before. It was _okay_ , certainly not as good as the original but they lyrics seemed to stay true enough to the original in his opinion.

When the clapping started, he screamed and fell in his haste to whirl around to see who had snuck up on him. So, his very first sight of the Sandaime Hokage in over four years was him smiling down at him - seeming withholding a laugh - as he looked up at him from where he sprawled out on the floor.

“Do you sing often, Naruto-kun?” He asked, kindly glossing over his fall and ignoring his scramble up from the ground. “And such interesting songs, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that one before.”

Naruto flushed. The only thing worse then having an unknown audience for when you’re singing and making a fool of yourself is if you had one when you were _dancing_ and making a fool of yourself. “Not, um, not _often_ but I sing sometimes. And I, uh, made that song up…?”

Naruto could almost _hear_ the blaring sirens and see a flashing red sign reading ‘COPYRIGHT!’ in big, bold letters.


End file.
